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The Fair Pricing Coalition (FPC) again censures Gilead Sciences for its drug pricing practices, this time for 7 percent price increases for Complera and Stribild—just six months after taking 7 percent and 5 percent price increases on the same antiretroviral (ARV) products in January.

“Gilead’s relentless pursuit of ARV market dominance, at the expense of public and private insurers and the American public, knows no bounds,” said FPC co-chair Lynda Dee. “This isn’t simply a cunning effort to squeeze profits out of both Complera and Stribild before one of their main components, tenofovir disoproxil (TDF), goes off patent; it’s also a scheme to maximize the number of people living with HIV using Gilead’s newer tenofovir alafenamide (TAF)-inclusive coformulations in advance of generic TDF-based regimens becoming available.”

Odefsey and Genvoya, newer versions of Complera and Stribild that contain TAF instead of TDF, were launched in the U.S. in November 2015 and March 2016, respectively, at wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) prices of $28,150 and $30,930 per year—both in parity with Complera and Stribild. With the July price increases, the WACs for Complera and Stribild are now $30,092 and $34,686 respectively, whereas the WAC prices for Odefsey and Genvoya remain the same.

TDF, Gilead’s 2001 breakthrough ARV for HIV and a component of Complera and Stribild (as well as Atripla and Truvada), is expected to come off patent in December 2017, with generic TDF-inclusive combination tablets becoming available in early 2018. Though TAF is equally efficacious and less likely to negatively affect markers of kidney and bone health compared with TDF, TDF remains a safe and effective component of ARV therapy for many people living with HIV. Coformulated with other generic medications, such as lamivudine, generic TDF may be a durable HIV treatment option associated with lower costs.

According to FPC member Tim Horn: “The July price increases are primarily indicative of an abhorrent tactic in an economic climate demanding a break from crushing healthcare costs: inflating the prices of older drugs to cast newer expensive drugs in an artificial light of being cheaper options. In turn, private insurers will either drop Complera or Stribild entirely or place even greater restrictions on their use, thereby hastening the uptake of Odefsey and Genvoya among people living with HIV. Once patients are started on or switched to TAF-inclusive regimens, it will be that much harder for patients and providers to seriously consider the merits of products containing generic TDF when they become available—and Gilead is banking on this.”

“FPC applauded Gilead for pricing its new TAF products, Odefsey and Genvoya, in parity with its older TDF products,” said Dee. “It suggested to us that Gilead was becoming cognizant of the systemic pitfalls of pricing medications beyond what the market can reasonably bear. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the company to manipulate HIV drug prices to fend off the threat of safe, effective, and potentially cheaper generic alternatives. It’s shameless.”
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The Fair Pricing Coalition, founded by the late Martin Delaney of Project Inform, is a national coalition of activists who work on HIV and viral hepatitis drug pricing issues, and to help control drug costs for patients who are privately insured, underinsured and uninsured. The FPC also works to ensure access for individuals covered by state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), Medicare, and Medicaid. For more information about the Fair Pricing Coalition and its history, visit: fairpricingcoalititon.org.